From Catherine Sullivan:Please help me with the following: The radioactive isotope carbon-14 is present in small quantities in all life forms, and it is constantly replenished until the organism dies, after which it decays to carbon-12 at a rate proportional to the amount of C-14 present, with a half life of 5730 years. Suppose C(t) is the amount of C-14 at time t.

Find the value of the constant k in the differential equation: C'=-kC

In 1988 3 teams of scientists found that the Shroud of Turin, which was reputed to be the burial cloth of Jesus, contained 91% of the amount of C-14 contained in freshly made cloth of the same material. How old is the Shroud according to the data?

Answered by Harley Weston.

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